MODULE 4:    OLD INDIC VS. NEW INDIC

INDIA AS A SET OF “CIVILIZATIONS” AND “CULTURES”
 --  "OLD INDIC" AND "NEW INDIC" CULTURAL NOTIONS

Regarding these seven periods mentioned in the preceding module, it is useful to distinguish between the first four and the last three, the first four to be designated by the expression "Old Indic" and the last three with the expression "New Indic."  The expression "Old Indic" refers primarily to the cultural notions deriving from archaic Indus Valley traditions and from ancient Brahmanical, Hindu, Buddhist and Jain traditions.  These represent  a complex and diverse set of cultural traits, but a number of common characteristics or "family resemblances" are present in these various periods to warrant a general designation along the lines of "Old Indic." The expression "New Indic" refers primarily to the influx of Mediterranean and western cultural notions which come into play in South Asia with the coming of Islam from the seventh and eighth centuries and the coming of European civilization  in the seventeenth century and onwards.    Here again one finds a complex and diverse set of cultural traits but also some clear common characteristics or "family resemblances" that appear to warrant the designation "New Indic."

One preliminary way of highlighting the basic differences between "Old Indic" and "New Indic" is to call attention to some of the basic cultural notions  or "framework principles" that are characteristic of each grouping.  In the sequel, of course, these various notions will be dealt with in greater depth, but it may be useful to mention them in at least an introductory way at this early stage.

OLD INDIC (INDUS VALLEY-BRAHMANICAL-HINDU-BUDDHIST-JAIN) cultural notions:

 (1)  dharma (custom, law, duty), varna (caste) and ashrama (stage of life)
  [social anthropology]
 (2)  karman (action), samsara (transmigration), and smriti (mindfulness)
  [ethics]
 (3)  atman (Self), purusha (self), jiva (self) and anatman (no-self)
  [psychology or theory of self]
 (4)  yoga (disciplined meditation), dhyana (meditation), samadhi (concentration)
  [epistemology]
 (5)  moksha (release), nirvana (release), bhakti (devotion)
  [theology]

NEW INDIC I (INDO-ISLAMIC) cultural notions:

 (1)  Allah (one and only god) -- Muhammad as "prophet" (rasul)
 (2)  Quran (sacred text or "recitation"-- along with Judaism and Christianity,
  a religion of the sacred Book)
 (3)  Dar al-Islam  (house of Islam -- religious-cum-political community)
 (4)  Shariat (law -- as found in Quran, utterances of the prophet Muhammad
  and in the consensus of the community)
 (5)  Mecca, Kaba (the original sacred space of the believing community)

NEW INDIC II (INDO-BRITISH) cultural notions:

 (1)  Nation-state
 (2)  Modernization
 (3)  English education
 (4)  Christian missions
 (5)  Neo-Muslim and Neo-Hindu formations

From  one point of view, these cultural notions or "framework principles" are technical terms that can be learned from any glossary, but from the perspective of our Passage to India it is important  to see these notions and principles as more than a discrete set of terms in a glossary.  It is important  to see them, rather, as interacting networks of symbolic meaning or semantic fields that help us to understand the patterns of meaning that become dominant  in the unfolding history of India’s cultures and civilizations.  Moreover, these various interacting networks of notions are cumulative over time.  That is, the Old Indic network does not disappear with the arising of the New Indic of the Indo-Islamic nor with the New Indic of the Indo-British.  Throughout the history of the subcontinent  these networks continually interact with one another, and in this sense it becomes clear that India’s cultures and civilizations have been continually contested over time and continue to be contested down to the present day.  "India," therefore, is not at all a single "civilization" or "culture."  It is, rather, always to be understood as continually contested sets of civilizations and cultures.